Garson Mine is an underground nickel

Nickel

Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...

 mine

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 located in the community of Garson, within the city of Greater Sudbury, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Garson mine was developed around 1908 by Mond Nickel Company

Mond Nickel Company

The Mond Nickel Company Limited was a United Kingdom-based mining company, formed on September 20, 1900, licenced in Canada to carry on business in the province of Ontario, from October 16, 1900...

 and is owned by Vale Inco.

Garson Ramp Project

Vale Inco has approved a plan to re-open the Garson Ramp. The project is in the development phase and will cost $30 million. The Garson Ramp project will involve three ore bodies and produce 500 tonnes of ore per day.

Ground Conditions

The ground conditions

Ground conditions

Ground conditions is a general, layperson's term used to describe the conditions of rock structure in an underground mine setting. More specifically, "ground conditions" is the term used when discussing health and safety in a workplace setting...

 at Garson Mine are dangerous and unstable. Workers have lost their lives due to unstable ground conditions at Garson Mine and these conditions continue to be a problem for operations. A rock burst

Rock burst

A rock burst is a spontaneous, violent fracture of rock that can occur in deep mines. The opening of a mine shaft relieves neighboring rocks of tremendous pressure, which can literally cause the rock to explode as it attempts to re-establish equilibrium...

 at the mine left nine workers trapped underground for several hours on January 23, 2007, although they were rescued with no injuries.

The unsafe ground conditions at Garson Mine are caused from a combination of variables, the two most prominent being that the mine is on a dyke

Dike (geology)

A dike or dyke in geology is a type of sheet intrusion referring to any geologic body that cuts discordantly across* planar wall rock structures, such as bedding or foliation...

 and aquifer

Aquifer

An aquifer is a wet underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology...

.

Safety

In 2005 Garson Mine won the CIM

Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum

The Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum is a technical society of professionals in the Canadian minerals, metals, materials and energy industries. It was founded in 1898. In 2006, the organization had 12,000 national members...

's National John T. Ryan Trophy

John T. Ryan Trophy

John T. Ryan Trophies are CIM awards of excellence given to a mine in a given category which experiences the lowest accident frequency during the previous year in all of Canada. Three national trophies are given each year, one to a metal mine, a coal mine and one to a select mine...

for Metal Mines. This award is given to the metal mine which has the lowest accident frequency in the country.